Practical Application of EID’s in a Commercial Merino Flock

Anthony Uren

“Congi Station” (Walcha, NSW)

• 10,000 Ha (Granite soils, 800mm Rainfall, 900M Elevation)

• 60,000 DSE Fine wool Merino enterprise (Av. 16.7 Micron)• Includes, 600 ewe nucleus flock as a Ram Multiplier.

• 20,000 DSE Crossbred beef enterprise

“Doughboy Mountain” (Wongwibinda, NSW)

• 1980 Ha (Basalt soils, 980mm Rainfall, 1400M Elevation)

• 20,000 DSE Beef fattening Enterprise

Why did I Adopt EID’s?

• Manually collecting data for ram multiplier, using Indexing as a

selection tool. (FD,CV,GFW, BWT)

• Errors in data recording were evident. 4% - 8%

• Errors are compounded when collecting more than 1 trait

• Frustrated with staff reading tags incorrectly, including myself.

• Benefits of performance recording were obvious.

• The desire to expand this process to the commercial flock

What was our plan?

• Open Nucleus – Use the 16,000 head commercial flock to drive genetic gain

• Initially used FD alone as an initial parameter for stud selection.

• Move away from single trait selection towards a totally indexed flock

• Make Objective selection decisions – “culling for economic fault”

• Use an index that drives positive commercial outcomes. Could not expand

Indexing to the commercial flock without EID’s

• Indexing approx. 14,000 animals per year

• Collecting over 40,000 individual records (FD, GFW, BWT, CV, SS, WEC)

Understand the profit drivers in your enterprise.

• 25 years of benchmarking tells us that on average 68% of our Merino

Enterprise income comes from wool.

• Change our thinking, away from FD and CFW and think of

“Fleece Value”

• Adopt an Index that aligns with fleece value

How did we go about it

• Sample of 700 ewes ( same age )

• Micron & Fleece weight data on each

• Applied 5 Yr Average wool price to each animal

• Fleece Value variance $107.63 - $24.37

Difference = $83.26

How do we retain the better performers?

“Use a selection index that aligns with our objective”

FP+ MP+ DP+ Y7/15

CFW +2.0% +5.1% +3.0% +11.4%

FD -0.7µ -0.3µ 0.0µ -0.8µ

BWT +0.2Kg +1.4Kg +2.3kg +0.8Kg

SS +1.2Nkt +1.4Nkt +0.5Nkt +0.8Nkt

Expected 10 Year response

What is the financial impact of these indexes?

Per Head Fleece Value Outcomes

Index Correlation to

Fleece Value

10 Yr. Value Add

DP + - $1.26

MP + 0.58 $5.51

FP + 0.66 $7.92

Y7/15 0.72 $12.53

Source: Holmes Sackett, Benchmarking Report

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18

Av. Adult FD

Indexing

Average Adult Fibre Diameter

Flock Building Phase

Kg’s Clean Fleece Per Adult Shorn

Source: Holmes Sackett, Benchmarking Report

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18

CFW / Adult Shorn

Trendline

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18

Series1

Trendline

Kg’s Clean Wool Per Ha

Source: Holmes Sackett, Benchmarking Report

97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18

Series1

Linear (Series1)

Net Profit per DSE

Source: Holmes Sackett, Benchmarking Report

Flock Stud

All Ewe Progeny

Balance on Index to the

flock

Potential StudsTop 20% on

Index

Bottom 15%Classed out

on Index

Joined April to flock rams

Wet & Dried @ Marking

1st Shearing @12m

GFW, FD & BWT

Re tested 2nd

shearing

Indexed

Classing

Indexed Y7/15Dries

5% Visual Culls

Flock Ewes

Ewe Progeny

1st Shearing•GFW•FD

•BWT

Index

Retained Ewes Classed Out

Class out obvious fault

eID’s & Data Collection Hardware

Pro’s of using EID’s

• Speed in data collection and retrieval

• Improved data accuracy – (especially on large no.’s animals)

• Classing decisions become Objective not Subjective

• Ability to use additional tools such as DNA Parentage, Autodrafter,

Pedigree Matchmaker, walk over weighing.

• Lifetime Traceability

• A positive for quality assurance programs

Con’s of using EID’s

• Additional costs

• Need to maintain data integrity

• Computer literacy and data management software

• Only use 1 to 2 times per yr. (How did I do that last time?)

• While quick to collect data, setup etc. does take time.

• Technology will let you down, generally when under pressure

Should you adopt EID’s in your flock?

• Do you have a concise plan?

• Estimate $9000 ( assuming buying everything)

• Wand Reader - $1900 (Share with cattle enterprise)

• Indicator - $3000 (Share with cattle enterprise)

• Load Bars - $1500 (May have for weigh crate)

• Barcode Reader - $700

• Barcode Printer - $1700

• Moving from a printed flock tag $0.45 to and EID tag $1.85

“Can you get a return for that Investment?”

5yr 4yr 3yr 2yr 1 yr

Index Value

0 100

Things are tight, I cant afford to start now !!!!

Tips & lessons Learnt.

• Start with a single cohort, Start small.

• Consider using a service provider before investing in hardware

• 1st data collection time, do at a less stressful event - NOT SHEARING

• Use of scale Indicator and spreadsheets are fine to start with.

• Before purchasing equip. talk to neighbours and see what they are using.

(gives backup when a breakdown occurs)

• Find out about tech support prior to purchasing equip. ( you’re going to

need it)

Questions?